For sixty years Galway Film Society has been at the heart of culture in Galway and the west of Ireland. And at the heart of GFS for most of those years were Joe and Bridie McMahon.
As a passionate cinephile, Joe McMahon was an outstanding GFS chairman, and personified all that is great in Galway film. He passed away in May, but his legacy endures.
Joe McMahon was a native of Limerick. He grew up in a city where nearly every neighbourhood had its own beloved picture palace. After some years with Aer Lingus, Joe became an administrator in the Science and Engineering faculties of University College Galway. Joe was kind, thoughtful and supportive; a real professional. These qualities were also manifest in his leadership of GFS, and in the Federation of Irish Film Societies – now Access>Cinema.
“He was a colossus in helping to facilitate the rapid provision of cultural cinema in Ireland,” says Finola Costello of Picture House Wexford.
With Joe at the helm of an energetic and imaginative committee, the GFS seasons of screenings became essential entries in Galway’s cultural calendar.
Every Monday evening the O’Flaherty Theatre in UCG was the place to see great films. It became a place to connect with contemporary art, and with intellectual political movements of Europe and the world, beyond our little city. All Galway’s creative folk gathered there: radical, young students and emerging artists, to grizzled veterans of the culture wars of the fifties, sixties and seventies. A few were connected with the university, but many came from outside its walls. Aficionados from city and county came wanting more than commercial cinemas blockbusters. GFS provided a programme of seminal cinematic stepping stones to guide these across patrons through dark winter nights, and the dismal days too. Ireland’s political turbulence was reflected in the exceptional curatorship, featuring independent Irish film makers, determined to shine their lights onto our gloomy island.
Those screenings of the late seventies and eighties exuded a sense of an energised arts community finding its voice. At that stage - already two decades old - GFS had a track record of achievement, confidence and success that the newer groups could aspire to. In company with Druid Theatre Company and Galway Arts Festival, Galway Film Society developed the unique west of Ireland voice and aesthetic that propelled Galway to the forefront of the arts in Ireland.
Joe and his soul-mate Bridie were early morning swimmers at Blackrock, Salthill. The fortitude with which they faced the cold waves was called for when the idyll in the O’Flaherty Theatre was disrupted.
In January 1986, the University caved in to unpleasant external pressure of religious zealots who entered the campus to prevent the screening of Jean-Luc Godard’s Je Vous Salue Marie. Rather than confront the censorship of the mob, and concerned about security, UCG withdrew its facilities from the Society. Suddenly homeless, GFS showed the film off-site, as a pop-up. The personal toll on Joe and Bridie was real: they had to face down letters of abuse, including believable bomb scares and death threats from wicked, anonymous and self-appointed defenders of the faith.
In a city light on arts infrastructure, the Society had little choice than to return to UCG. But it was never quite the same comfortable haven, and the febrile traces of the college’s capitulation lingered.
When the city’s new Town Hall Theatre opened its doors in 1995, Galway Film Society was welcomed by Galway Corporation. GFS moved in for many seasons of happy, undisrupted Sunday evenings, with Joe and Bridie leading. With the freedom of the Town Hall’s benign régime as the municipal showcase for all arts groups, GFS could expand its social programming. It linked in with the diversity of Galway communities, and provided connections with older age groups, social action groups and language societies of new Galway residents. As a godparent of the original Galway Film Fleadh and a consistent supporter and curator of new film-making in Ireland, GFS was a consistent trail-blazer.
Joe’s insights and judgment throughout made him a major presence in Galway’s arts community. He was on the first boards of the Galway Arts Centre and the original Galway Film Fleadh. He was utterly supportive of the emerging Galway film-making community, in its confident charge towards the highly prized and vastly constructive award in 2014 of Galway’s UNESCO City of Film status, and the creation of Pálás in 2018 with GFS as a resident presence. In the words of the former director of access>CINEMA, Maretta Dillon: “Joe McMahon was rigorous and independent in thought and always looked at the broader picture… he gave audiences in Galway and Ireland the opportunity to see a broader range of World cinema. The arts and film in particular, owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Reputedly Joe’s favourite film was Wild Strawberries, Bergman’s masterful contemplation of a life’s journey. Joe’s life journey in film was a triumph. He led from the front, bestowed kindness, clarity and innovation. He improved film in Galway for audiences and artists. His intellectual curiosity, good humour and breadth of understanding were always at the service of Galway, Ireland and the arts. He truly was a colossus.
Today, under the enthusiastic stewardship of Chair Louise Casey Conneally, and dedicated committee Sean O’Cearbhaill, Bridie McMahon, Edith Pieperhoff, and Frances Gilmore Varley, GFS continues to attract a huge following. In 2024 it piloted a collaboration with the University of Galway to bring the first NICE Italian Film Festival to Galway, as well as an outreach programme with Aras Éanna, to bring film events to Inis Óirr. These will become annual events in GFS’s calendar.
GFS also commissioned Galway Film Society at 60, a mini-documentary commemorating its 60th anniversary and GFS’ contribution to arts in the city. Directed by Mikey Whelan, the film will open GFS’ Autumn/Winter season this Sunday, October 6 at 8pm, and Monday, October 7 at 6.30pm.
